News

Imagine a tire that could heal after being punctured or a rubber band that never snapped. Researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have developed a new type of rubber that is as tough as natural rubber but can also self-heal. Self-healing materials aren’t new — researchers at

Stanford University engineers have developed dynamic windows that can switch from transparent to opaque or back again in under a minute, a significant improvement over dimming windows currently being installed to reduce cooling costs in some buildings. The newly designed “smart” windows consist of conductive glass plates outlined with metal ions that spread out over

Read more about New energy-saving windows can go from clear to dark in under a minute

Microparticles created by new 3-D fabrication method could release drugs or vaccines long after injection. MIT engineers have invented a new 3-D fabrication method that can generate a novel type of drug-carrying particle that could allow multiple doses of a drug or vaccine to be delivered over an extended time period with just one injection.

Expanding polymer enables self-folding without heating or immersion in water. As 3-D printing has become a mainstream technology, industry and academic researchers have been investigating printable structures that will fold themselves into useful three-dimensional shapes when heated or immersed in water. In a paper appearing in the American Chemical Society’s journal Applied Materials and Interfaces,

Scientists in the US are taking inspiration from the compound eyes of insects to devise a way to pack tiny solar cells together in order to develop more efficient photovoltaic devices. In the study, a team from Stanford University has looked to the micro-lenses that form the geodesic domes of the robber fly’s compound eyes.

Three-Dimensional Printed Graphene Foams An automated metal powder three-dimensional (3D) printing method for in situ synthesis of free-standing 3D graphene foams (GFs) was successfully modeled by manually placing a mixture of Ni and sucrose onto a platform and then using a commercial CO2 laser to convert the Ni/sucrose mixture into 3D GFs. The sucrose acted as the solid

Ultralight, scalable, and high-temperature–resilient ceramic nanofiber sponges Ultralight and resilient porous nanostructures have been fabricated in various material forms, including carbon, polymers, and metals. However, the development of ultralight and high-temperature resilient structures still remains extremely challenging. Ceramics exhibit good mechanical and chemical stability at high temperatures, but their brittleness and sensitivity to flaws significantly

Read more about Ultralight, scalable, and high-temperature–resilient ceramic nanofiber sponges

Long-range ferrimagnetic order in a two-dimensional supramolecular Kondo lattice Realization of long-range magnetic order in surface-supported two-dimensional systems has been challenging, mainly due to the competition between fundamental magnetic interactions as the short-range Kondo effect and spin-stabilizing magnetic exchange interactions. Spin-bearing molecules on conducting substrates represent a rich platform to investigate the interplay of these

Read more about Long-range ferrimagnetic order in a two-dimensional supramolecular Kondo lattice

The research group led by Asst. Prof. Maytal Caspary Toroker from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering deciphered the reason for the success of doping iron for the best catalyst known today for splitting water. The article published in a respected journal in the field of physical chemistry, called Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, reveals

Patterning materials efficiently at the smallest length scales is a longstanding challenge in nanotechnology. Electron-beam lithography (EBL) is the primary method for patterning arbitrary features, but EBL has not reliably provided sub-4 nm patterns. The few competing techniques that have achieved this resolution are orders of magnitude slower than EBL. In this work, we employed

Read more about Aberration-Corrected Electron Beam Lithography at the One Nanometer Length Scale

Disasters on the scale of the Exxon Valdez and Deepwater Horizon serve as harrowing reminders of the devastating effects uncontrolled oil spills have on the environment. Skimming, burning, and dispersing oil are only partially effective and carry their own ecological impacts. An enticing alternative strategy involves oil sorbents capable of efficient extraction of oil from

Read more about Advanced oil sorbents using sequential infiltration synthesis

On May 7th, 2017, an open day was held at the Faculty of Science and Materials Engineering. Big thanks to all the faculty representatives at the event, and to everyone who came. We’ll see you next school year!

Technion researchers have developed a new method for the production of hydrogen from water using solar energy. The new method will make it possible to produce the hydrogen in a centralized manner far from the solar farm, cost-effectively, safely and efficiently. Technion-Israel Institute of Technology researchers have developed a new approach to the production of

This year Isaiah Shavitt lectureship award was received by Prof. Laura Gagliardi from the University of Minnesota. This is the third annual event in memory of Isaiah Shavitt. Isaiah Shavitt was a pioneer in the field of theoretical chemistry and widely regarded as one of the founders of computational chemistry. Developed efficient methods to treat

Read more about Prof. Laura Gagliardi received the Isaiah Shavitt Lecture Award 2016

A retirement party for Dr. Gary Fant, the faculty’s electronic engineer, was held this week. For the past 42 years, Gary helped faculty members and trainees with research work. Many of them honored Gary and came to express their appreciation. We would like to wish Gary a joyful retirement, and to thank him for the

The annual grill party was held at the Departmental of Materials Science and Engineering. The student body of our Department organized a social evening at 19:30, June 1st 2016. This grill party engaged undergraduate students, graduate student, staff, and faculty. Selected pictures: More pictures from the event can be found at: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B-4d59cvUfk2YTk2STQ4ZVVnQmc&usp=drive_web

A new research group for advanced materials modeling has been established by Prof. Maytal Caspary Toroker at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the Technion. Some of the activities include the following: A new conference on “Recent Advances in Computational Modeling for Energy Applications” was held on July 7th 2015 at the Department

Congratulations for Awards: January 2017: Prof. Wayne Kaplan received the title “Global Ambassador of The American Ceramic Society” Dr. Drezner for receiving the new appointment of the student laboratory November 2016: Prof. Emeritus Moshe Eizenberg receives an award “Notable Honor of the City of Haifa” for the year 2016

New at the Technion! The Department of Materials Science and Engineering is opening a new B.Sc degree in Materials Engineering The new degree combines basic knowledge of chemistry and physics and materials engineering, in order to give graduates a wide range of tools that will allow them to engage in a variety of fields such as microelectronics,

The Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology is seeking outstanding candidates for tenure-track faculty positions at the Assistant, Associate, and Full Professor levels. We seek applicants with significant accomplishments and future potential in any area of materials science and engineering. Applications from candidates working in the field